


Do you Even Bust?

by MelonWing



Category: Hermitcraft RPF
Genre: Confessions, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, inspired by Elybeatmaker, only a little angsty
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:08:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23915809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelonWing/pseuds/MelonWing
Summary: Mumbo and Iskall go to the End together and after Iskall accidentally calls him his lover, Mumbo comes to realise, that he might also feel more than friendship.This fanfiction is based on Mumbo's Livestream and the resulting Remix 'Do you even bust?' by Elybeatmaker.
Relationships: Mumbo/Iskall
Comments: 7
Kudos: 176





	Do you Even Bust?

Mumbo screamed loudly, frantically running from the Enderman that had just attacked him. He could hear Iskall laughing from the safety of the tower. Mumbo only glared at his friend. Sure, he wasn't in any real danger, with all of his enchanted gear, but laughing at him like that? Rude.

"Stop laughing and help me!", Mumbo grumbled as he ducked under the roof of the tower, catching his breath and looking for the Enderman. He felt safe... Until the Enderman actually teleported in front of him and hit him right into the face.

He jumped back with a high pitched scream, making Iskall laugh even louder.

Mumbo turned to throw him a dirty look. Iskall was standing in the door frame, holding his side and doubling over in laughter. How had he been supposed to know, that the Enderman could reach him under that roof? Well… actually he should have really known. This wasn’t his first time in the End after all.

"Haha, yes very funny. I don't even know why I thought this would be a good hiding spot. Now get your ass over here and help me."

Iskall turned his gaze onto him and just by looking into his eyes, Mumbo already felt the tension fading away. Iskall's amused smile just had that effect on him, even if he was laughing at something Mumbo had done.

"Don't you worry. Iskallman to the rescue, my fair maiden in danger."

Mumbo could only roll his eyes, watching in mild fascination as Iskall tightened the grip on his sword, his whole body straightening, his muscles becoming even more pronounced. Mumbo couldn’t help himself as his eyes trailed every line on Iskall’s forearms, swallowing a little.

The Enderman reappeared in front of the doorway, ready to attack again and without hesitation Iskall jumped at an unfathomable speed, his sword piercing precisely through the Enderman's chest. The monster seemed to be enraged at the stab wound, teleporting away from them only to reappear right behind Iskall who had stepped out of the safety of the doorway.

"Watch out!", Mumbo screamed at his friend, voice raised in panic, but Iskall just elegantly turned around, his sword fluidly following the motion and slashing the mid section of the Enderman. Before the Enderman could even teleport away Iskall hit him once more and the creature dissolved into purple particles, dropping a single glimmering green pearl.

"Well. Look at that. Piece of cake, wasn't it?", Iskall gloated, looking over his shoulder with a smirk, sword hanging loosely from his hand again. If he didn't know any better, Mumbo wouldn't believe, how good of a fighter Iskall was with that attitude.

"Yeah, yeah...", Mumbo grumbled, rolling his eyes and wiping some invisible dirt from his armour. "I could have easily done that myself. I was just a little surprised."

"Suuuure. Whatever you say", Iskall's voice had a teasing hint and the smile he threw Mumbo's way was no longer gloating or amused, but rather fond. "Your scream was adorable, by the way."

Mumbo could feel the heat rising to his face. "I... I just... It just surprised me, that's all. I am good at End busting! I could have done it on my own once I regained my composure. I can be good at fighting if I want to."

Iskall snorted. They both knew that was a lie and they both knew that Mumbo needed Iskall far more than the other way around. Iskall probably picked him as a partner most of the time because they were friends and liked spending time together, not because he was the best choice.

"Of course, Mumbo. That's why you never go alone... I mean, do you even bust, bro?" Iskall teased him in a sing-song voice. Mumbo rolled his eyes and playfully shoved him in the side.

"You’re an idiot!"

Iskall giggled again, humming a little tune, looking Mumbo straight into the eyes with a mischievous smile. "Do you even bust?", he started to sing and Mumbo had to stifle the laughter that almost made its way out of his mouth.

"Do you even bust? Do you even bust, my friend", Iskall sang again as another Enderman teleported to their location. With practised ease Iskall evaded the creature's swing and stabbed it with his sword. "Do you even bust?"

Mumbo finally laughed, tears in his eyes and at a pointed look Iskall threw him, he joined in with a more quietly sung. "Do you even bust?"

They kept going for a few minutes as Iskall killed two more Enderman coming their way. Mumbo couldn’t help but admire the way his friend moved around during the fight. He probably should have helped him out, but Iskall didn’t look like he needed it and Mumbo liked watching him.

"Do you even bust?", Iskall's voice was clear and even while he was fighting and moving around it sounded so light and effortless. "Do you even bust", Iskall pulled his sword out of the dissolving Enderman that had been standing between them. The monster turned into a cloud of glittering particles. Iskall smiled at him through the purple mist as he continued his song, "my lover?" The smile on Iskall’s face suddenly froze as those last words left his mouth. His eyes widened and Mumbo swore he could see the other's cheeks redden a little. "I... I mean. My friend, my bro. Yeah, that!"

And Mumbo would have laughed it off and pretended that Iskall hat just made a joke. But seeing how flustered Iskall looked after those words had left his mouth, made Mumbo's heart beat faster all of the sudden. This hadn't been a joke. This had been a slip-up. And Mumbo couldn't help but shudder at the way Iskall had said those words. His voice had been so soft and gentle – so full of love.

The thought had never before crossed Mumbo's mind, but now he couldn't help it. He needed to know. "You... Iskall, do you lo-"

"Let's go to the next city! Yeah! We need to got further. No resting now or we'll never finish this Endbust. More Enderman could come. This tower doesn't look very stable and might collapse any second. And our Elytras will get all dusty and yeah. Move. Now!", Iskall rambled on in a slightly high pitched voice, already hurrying to get some rockets out of his inventory. He wasn't making all to much sense. Seeing his friend in such a state was highly unusual.

"Iskall, what the hell? Don't...", Mumbo started, but Iskall already turned around, firing his rockets in a quick succession, leaving Mumbo behind in a cloud of dust and gunpowder. Mumbo was left standing in front of the tower, looking after his friend in confusion. He couldn't believe what had just happened. Iskall hadn’t even let him finish his question. But the way he had bolted out might be enough of an answer. He would only react like that if it was true, which meant… Iskall loved him? Mumbo slowly raised his hand up to his chest, to feel his own heart beating so unbelievably fast. He couldn't help the soft smile that made its way onto his face.

Iskall's lover, huh?

He had never thought about something like that, had never thought of them being in any kind of relationship. He had always seen Iskall's presence as given. But now that he thought about it. Now that his mind considered the possibility... They'd always been so close. Sure Mumbo had other close friends, but it was different. When he was thinking about Grian and thinking about Iskall, he wasn’t feeling the same, he realised now. The tiniest of Iskall's laughs always made him so utterly happy.

"Lover...", he whispered to himself and a tiny delighted giggle escaped his lips. He did like the sound of that.

Filled with confidence, he had never felt before he stepped out of the tower to look up at the seemingly endless sky. Now all he had to do was find Iskall, before he lost all that confidence and became to scared to act on those newly discovered emotions.

Mumbo fumbled a little with his rockets, but a few seconds later he lifted up into the air. Admittedly he didn't manage to lift of as graceful or efficient as Iskall, but that didn't matter. He kept flying into the direction his friend had disappeared into. He wasn't sure where Iskall had gone to, but Mumbo hoped he'd find him, if he just kept going.

Floating islands and endless void passed below him. He had been flying for almost half an hour now. Mumbo glanced back at his Elytra and winced. The material already looked quite beaten and he should really head back if he wanted to make it out of here. There was an island below and he landed, almost planting face first into a chorus plant.

Iskall's Elytra durability should be about the same as his. He should have stopped as well... Or hadn't he noticed?

Mumbo took out his communicator. There were no new messages from his Endbusting partner. And he sure as hell hoped that this didn't mean that Iskall was still up in the air.

<MumboJumbo> Iskall? You landed somewhere? We should really head back. We are going to get ourselves stranded.

He stared at the little screen for a while, humming to himself. He couldn't get the little tune that Iskall had sung earlier out of his head now. And just humming it alone already filled him with happiness... He might be a weird guy, but honestly? He didn't care about that at the moment.

A few minutes passed in silence. Mumbo could hear the Enderman teleporting back and forth on the little island. He hoped they'd leave him alone. He didn't dare to look into their direction. Still, there was no reply from Iskall.

"Oh fuck it..."

Mumbo really should head back. That would be the intelligent thing to do. But at the moment he couldn't care less about making wise decisions.

He had his communicator with him. If he'd get stuck he could just get another Hermit to help out. But he shuddered at the thought of Iskall falling into the void because he didn't pay attention to his Elytra's durability.

With a sigh Mumbo stood up again. He knew he was signing his fate. If he went on there was no way, he'd be able to get back on his own. But that didn't matter to him right now. So he lifted into the air and kept pushing on. How far could Iskall have gone? He had started a little before Mumbo and then Mumbo had taken a short break. But that would still only be about five minutes of a head-start. And he was pretty sure, if an Endcity were to appear, that Iskall wouldn't pass up the opportunity, so Mumbo might still be able to catch up.

He flew a few more minutes and as if he had predicted it, and Endcity materialised on the horizon. Mumbo squinted his eyes, trying to see if he could make out Iskall's shape in between the towers. There was no movement. Mumbo slowly descended. There were no Shulkers by the door. Well, that was a good sign.

"Iskall?!", he shouted as he landed and stepped into the tower. No one answered his call, but he swore he could hear sounds somewhere above him. That meant he was at the right place. Iskall had to be around.

Climbing up the tower, Mumbo followed the sounds and stepped onto one of the bridges, a little out of breath, when he spotted Iskall. Seeing him alone, made his whole face light up in and he raised his hand to wave.

"Iskall!"

Iskall jumped in surprise, his body whipping around, eyes wide. Mumbo took a few steps forward, but then stopped when he realised, that Iskall was slowly edging away from him. And his expression of surprise had transformed into one of uncertainty and fear. Mumbo's heart felt like it was breaking, seeing his friend like that.

"Iskall, we really need to talk about what happened there. You can't just keep on flying away."

"I can always try", Iskall mumbled quietly under his breath, but in the silence of the end, Mumbo still caught it. "It was just a joke, okay? It didn't mean anything, I swear. We can just pretend it didn’t happen."

"Iskall, I know your jokes. If it were a joke you wouldn't have run off like that. And you don't make those kind of jokes. You never joke about someone's emotions. You were serious even if you didn't mean to say it." Mumbo lowered his head, looking at his feet. "Iskall... I'm really sorry, I can't...", There was an audible gasp and the sound of rockets drowning out the rest of Mumbo's sentence, "... believe I never noticed how you felt."

Mumbo's head snapped up and he saw Iskall frantically flying off.

"Oh hell no, don't you dare", he grumbled, climbing the railing of the bridge and jumping down. A few rockets later he was already hot on Iskall's heels.

"Iskall! Seriously! Stop it!"

Mumbo kept shouting, but Iskall didn't even look back at him, just firing one rocket after the other. Something flying from Iskall past Mumbo caught his attention and realisation struck him in terror. It had been purple fabric. Iskall's Elytra was starting to fall apart.

Mumbo glanced down. Of course they were unlucky enough to be above the void. Not far away to their side was another floating island. With newfound determination, Mumbo fired his rockets in a dangerously fast succession. He could feel his hand starting to burn from the constant ray of sparks, but he closed in on Iskall. Without any word he managed to grab Iskall's arm, firing a few more rockets and pulling him off his course.

"Mumbo what...? Are you crazy?!"

Iskall's head whipped around and they were staring at each other, both out of breath. And then they were falling. It wasn't a long fall and their broken Elytra's still managed to slow it down a little.

Mumbo braced himself for the impact, when he felt arms wrapping around him and his body being turned around mid air. They hit the ground with a loud thud. Mumbo was shaking a little, but otherwise unharmed. Probably thanks to the idiot he just landed on top off.

"Are you freaking crazy, Iskall? Taking all the impact like that is madness!", he scolded, pushing himself a little off the ground into a sitting position, looking down at Iskall. Well at least at a first glance he seemed to be unharmed. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just... Didn't want you to get hurt", Iskall mumbled, head turned to the side, still avoiding Mumbo's eyes, even after everything that had just happened. And Mumbo could feel some kind of rage rising inside of him. he usually wasn't the forceful type, but he just... He couldn't handle this. It was like Iskall wanted to be miserable. Mumbo simply grabbed a hold of Iskall's cheeks and turned his head, forcing him to look up.

"Now look, Mr. I-accidentally-confessed-and-would-rather-run-than-talk-about-it..."

"That is a mouthful...", Iskall murmured under his breath, but Mumbo decided to ignore him.

"You could have died out there! There is a reason why we always go endbusting in pairs, you absolute idiot! And you can't just drop a bomb on me like that, make me realise that I like you and then go and die on me! You egoistical bastard!"

Iskall's eyes widened and he looked at Mumbo in shock. "Say that again..."

"You egoistical bastard?"

"No before that..."

"Oh..." Mumbo could feel the heat rising to his cheeks. He had been just blurting out all the stuff going through his head, not really thinking much about it. Well at least that made both of them idiots who had no brain to mouth filter. "I realised I like you."

"Like... As in liking a friend or the other kind of liking?", Iskall asked and he sounded so hopeful and scared at the same time. Mumbo had to wonder just how long this crush had been going on and what the seemingly unrequited crush had done to Iskall's confidence. He really wished they could have talked about their feelings sooner and in a less dramatic fashion. Well at least they were talking now. And it was time to clear things up between them.

Mumbo leaned back down again, one hand softly caressing Iskall's right cheek. Their lips were only a centimetre apart. "The kind of liking, that makes me wish you'd always call me your lover, because it made my heart race like mad and I never felt happier than when you said that."

"Oh..." So close up Mumbo could see Iskall's cheek turn slightly pink Iskall’s eyes were shining with unbelievable joy as he continued on in the same soft and loving tone he had used when he had sung earlier. "Can I kiss you... my lover?"

Mumbo could feel his own smile widen as he nodded and then their lips met, Iskall's hand burying in his hair. They were moving slowly, taking their time, lips parting and meeting again a few times. They would have stayed like that for longer, but a pained noise escaped Mumbo, when his hand brushed against the ground. They broke apart, worry written all over Iskall’s face as he looked to the side at Mumbo’s slightly burnt hand.

“You are hurt.”

“So are you probably. I did what I had to do to save you and I don’t regret it.”

Iskall just scoffed at that, but didn’t argue, which meant that Mumbo had been right and Iskall was at least hurt a little from the fall. They stayed silent for a while, Mumbo still lying on top of Iskall. Iskall’s hand was tracing gentle patterns onto Mumbo’s back.

"So... We are stranded now, right?", Iskall finally asked, sounding not the least bit worried about that.

"Hmhm... Better send Xisuma a message with our coordinates. Oh god he will be so mad."

Iskall nodded with a sigh, but then grinned, gently tugging one of Mumbo's lose strands of hair behind his ear. "But you know... It'll probably take them like a few hours until they get here. So what do you say... Let's build ourselves a little bunker, get comfortable and just... you know, just cuddle or something like that."

Mumbo smiled, pressing another chaste kiss onto Iskall's lips. "Yeah... Yeah, I'd like that very much."

And as they were putting together a make-shift shelter Mumbo could hear Iskall humming the soft melody under his breath that had started all of this.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello dear readers! Just wanted to let you know, that I also have a tumblr at melon-wing.tumblr.com  
> Why don't you drop by? I answer lots of questions or other messages there :)  
> There are also a few stories I haven't uploaded to ao3 yet.


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